Solvent cleaners are known for their excellent cleaning ability, quick drying, metal compatibility, and low surface tension to facilitate penetration. Unfortunately, some solvents are known also for the air pollution they cause (as volatile organic compounds or VOC), toxicity, flammability, and incompatibility with plastics.
The use of volatile organic compounds (VOC) solvents has been discouraged due to their deleterious effect on the environment. Regulations have been promulgated to accelerate the phase-out of environmentally destructive solvents.
The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) promulgates rules and regulations regarding environmental concerns such as VOCs. EPA has defined VOC's to include volatile compounds of carbon which promote atmospheric photochemical reactivity. Thus, there is a need to reduce the use of conventional VOC solvents and it is apparent that there is a need for solvents which have little or no VOC content.
The old specification P-D-680 solvent, commonly called Stoddard solvent or mineral spirits, contains petroleum fractions that are complex mixtures of aliphatic hydrocarbons, but may contain some aromatics and olefinics. P-D-680 contains hazardous air pollutants (HAP's) and VOC's, and causes health and environmental concerns. The revision to MIL-PRF-680 eliminated the HAP's, but MIL-PRF-680 still covers a petroleum-based solvent containing the same amount of VOC's as P-D-680. Since P-D-680 was first written, these solvents have been specified for general cleaning to remove oil and grease from aircraft and engine components and from ground support equipment.
There are several alternatives to the P-D-680/MIL-PRF-680 solvents: water-based, semi-aqueous, and solvent-based cleaners. Water-based cleaners contain detergents to remove grease and oil and may be used hot and/or with various forms of agitation (spray or ultrasonic). Disadvantages include flash rusting, embrittlement of high strength steel and poor cleaning efficiency. Semi-aqueous cleaning processes incorporate not only detergents, but also solvents to improve effectiveness. Some products contain solvents emulsified in water while others contain water-rinsable solvents. A significant disadvantage to semi-aqueous cleaners is their susceptibility to separation. Solvent-based cleaners, however, continue to be used in effective, low cost cleaning processes. In order to retain the capability of solvent cleaning, a new type of solvent is needed to meet the HAP and VOC requirements.
Under Title III of the 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) amendments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established emissions standards for categories and sub-categories of sources that emit or have the potential to emit listed HAPs. In addition, under the proposed rule, MIL-PRF-680 will no longer be allowed in solvent degreasing operations in the SCAQMD. If a substitute material or process is not authorized, the Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Detachment (AIMD) at Lemoore and other maintenance facilities will not be able to perform specific maintenance requirements in accordance with NAVAIR technical manuals. Since MIL-PRF-680 is the only material authorized by the applicable maintenance manuals to clean flight critical parts, an approved alternative for MIL-PRF-680 is necessary to meet the new environmental regulations.
To meet the new regulations, NAVAIR's Aircraft Materials Laboratory at Patuxent River, Md., recently tested several commercial products. As a result, a new specification MIL-PRF-32295 entitled “Cleaner, Non-Aqueous, Low-VOC, HAP-Free solvents,” was developed to provide environmentally friendly cleaners to the Department of Defense (DoD) services. The new specification requires that a solvent must be free of HAPs, must contain no more than 25 grams per liter of VOC's, must be effective on grease and oil, must not contain ozone-depleting substances (non-ODS), must be non-toxic, must be compatible with metals and non-metals, and must be safe to use. In addition, the Aerospace National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) states that immersion-cleaning solvents must have vapor pressures less than seven millimeters of mercury (7 mm Hg.), and wipe cleaning solvents must have vapor pressures less than 45 mm Hg. MIL-PRF-32295 classifies low vapor pressure solvents (less than 7 mm Hg) as Type I and moderate vapor pressure solvents (less than 45 mm Hg) as Type II. This invention will meet the requirements of MIL-PRF-32295 Type II specification. Products of this invention qualify to be used to clean weapon systems across DoD maintenance facilities as an alternative to MIL-PRF-680.